OTTAWA — In the hunt for evidence about Sen. Mike Duffy, Nigel Wright and a backroom deal struck in the Prime Minister’s Office to repay Duffy’s expenses, the RCMP has repeatedly tried to glean information from a senior television journalist.

CTV Ottawa bureau chief Robert Fife’s name appears in a court document filed by the RCMP in June. In it, the lead investigator on the Duffy file, Cpl. Greg Horton, outlines how he contacted Fife on May 28 “to confirm the accuracy of his reporting” that there was some form of written agreement between Duffy and Wright. Fife had reported such an agreement existed, citing unnamed sources.

According to the court document, Fife told Horton that “it was his understanding that there is a written letter of understanding.” Horton wrote that Fife said “he has not been able to verify that, does not know where it is, and has not seen it.”

Fife has heard from the RCMP at least twice during the police investigation, including recently when investigators asked him for a copy of a key email in the affair.

That alleged email is from Feb. 20 and reportedly outlines how Wright agreed he would give Duffy about $90,000, and in exchange a Senate committee would go easy on the senator when it wrote its final report on his inappropriate expense claims. CTV didn’t provide the RCMP with a copy of the email, apparently in order to protect Fife’s sources.

“To me, that’s the right answer. It’s not the media’s job to do the police’s job for them,” said Chris Waddell, director of the journalism school at Carleton University in Ottawa.

“The media are very cautious of sharing information with the police,” Waddell said. “You don’t want to be seen as agents of the police.”

Fife declined comment. “As a matter of course, I don’t do interviews on my journalism,” he wrote in a short email.

It’s not unheard of for police to turn to reporters for information in an investigation, but one former Mountie suggested it isn’t an everyday occurrence for the RCMP.

“Due to the profile and the fact (CTV reporter Robert Fife) had what appears to be excellent information, I am sure they were hoping to get a lead as to who might be able to put the deal into perspective,” said Garry Clement, who spent about 30 years with the RCMP.

“It has been the media that really shone the spotlight on the senators and therefore, although (investigators) had to have known they were clutching at straws, I am sure they were hoping for some lead.”

The Prime Minister’s Office has said it planned to fully co-operate with investigators and has ordered past and present staff to do the same.

The police can apply for a warrant to have a court compel a news outlet to hand over information. That triggers a process — usually — in which the news outlet applies for an order to quash the warrant, Waddell said, leaving the sealed information in the hands of a judge who determines the greater public good: prosecuting a crime or protecting a journalist and their sources.

There are no indications that such a warrant has been sought in this case.